Noise is brought about by having a high ISO setting - it's what I was hinting at further up the thread.

Example:

If you shoot something in Aperture Mode at say f5.6 and the camera gives you 50th of a second then thats fine for a still subject so leave the ISO at 100.

If you shoot in Aperture Mode at f5.6 and the camera gives you 50th of a second but you're shooting a bird and you know that shutter speed would be too slow - you increase the ISO from 100 to say 800 - the camea will be able to give you a much faster shutter speed for the same resulting exposure.

Upping the ISO to a very high number can introduce noise. The amount of noise will vary from camera to camera but if you need a faster shutter speed than the camera is offering and you're already at your maximum aperture then ISO is the way.

This is why fast (large aperture lenses) are used by sports and wildlife photographers yet landscape photographers may use a tripod, small apertures for deep dof and long shutter speeds.

I agree with what your saying Phil
I think the massive crop didnt help Skylines cause




Id of cropped it less ,not as artistic I know
I took out the sat dish and some of the poo
done it really quick just to demo



just my opinion of course hahahahaha

Yep - savage crops will certainly emphasise any noise present.

I was really just trying to help explain the 'theory' behind some of the questions raised.

Just a quick edit, as you have the edit box ticked there's a lot of good info on here from people, so I can't offer much more, except practice! This edit would be much easier with the original file of course - but you get the general idea



xx

This is good. Thanks everyone.

Phil. I definitely need to understand the theory of it all.

Cakey. I'm starting to understand now the noise part. It does get confusing for someone that doesn't know.
It's like when I started tying my own fishing knots and someone said to me do a knotless knot. Not a scooby at the time. This is similar. Noise in pictures lol.



Zoundz. Love it. What I was trying to do is get the sparrow looking at the food but what you have done looks a lot better.

Ive found with CS5 that if your using a high ISO number and you sharpen using the sharpen button it amplifies the noise and when you do a big crop you see the worm effect that you have got so you have to weigh up to sharpen or not to sharpen as much
that could be our next lesson hahahahaha

Another thought on Modes.

I quite often find myself having to switch between 2 different modes when.. say shooting at an air display. It can be quite handy to set these in 2 custom settings before the day, so you can qiuckly go from one to the other.

With that crop, I was deliberately getting rid of the feeders, as I personally (and a lot of others I reckon) think that feeders look a bit scruffy in a photo

xx

I shall clean my feeder up then

Everything everyone has said so far. has been noted. Thanks

Some good photos Skyline. I agree with everyone else about crops - try not to crop too far in as you'll inevitably lose quality.